Climate Change Threatens the Future and the Past

By Halia Ochieng, age 13, Virginia. 

Storms and floods are increasingly common in coastal areas in the United States and around the world. Rising water tables prevent soil from draining, which impacts soil health, plant growth, and other important ecological resources. I traveled to Jamestown, Virginia, home of England’s first permanent colony in North America, to learn more about another impact of rising water levels: the destruction of archeological sites. 

To understand how climate change is threatening these sites, I met with Dave Givens, the Director of Archaeology at Jamestown Rediscovery. Dave explained that rising water levels not only damage artifacts, they also make it harder for archeologists to do their work. Things stand to get worse: Dave estimated that “Jamestown will solidly be underwater by 2050.” 

Archeologists on Dave’s team reported that, as previously dry archaeological features become inundated, they are damaged in ways that reduce the historical clues they offer. DNA, for example, can be lost when bones are submerged for too long. Saltwater causes even greater damage, and Jamestown and many other archeological sites are close to the ocean. Artifacts containing porous materials like bricks, bones, pottery shards, and wood are damaged slowly, but metal artifacts corrode quickly, even in brackish water.

It’s not only Jamestown that’s threatened. According to a study done by researchers from across the country, more than 13,000 U.S. archeological sites are at risk of sinking. 

The same is true of many important heritage sites around the world. Ancient civilizations often developed along river deltas, such as the Tigris, Jordan, Euphrates, Nile, Indus, Huang He and Changjiang. River deltas are particularly threatened by rising water levels because they are flat and close to sea level. This means that our most valuable archaeological sites are often at the highest risk. 

Even a several-inch rise can submerge these sites, and according to the U.S. Global Change Research Program, the “average sea level has risen by more than 8 inches since scientific record keeping began in 1880.” 

New advances in technologies used for archeology, such as ground-penetrating radar, Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) imagery, and portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy measurers, offer an unprecedented opportunity to understand the civilizations that shape our societies and enrich our cultures. If archeologists had the time they needed to apply these new technologies in threatened sites, we could unlock a wealth of knowledge about our ancestors and our world. Because these new archaeological tools are less effective under water, rising water levels have created a race against the clock. 

Despite the urgency of their work, archeologists face many climate change-related interruptions. Coastal archeological sites have reported 100-year-storms becoming as frequent as every five years. Also, archeologists need to dig when soil is dry to see discolorations in the soil, which can indicate trenches or other filled-in groundwork. It’s hard for archeologists to race ahead when dry-soil days are becoming rare. 

To buy time, archeologists have sought temporary solutions, such as pumps and water retention walls. These are not only costly, but they are also inadequate. To enable archeologists to continue making discoveries, we need to slow climate change, which does more than submerge artifacts. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, “coastal erosion… and more frequent large wildfires are damaging archaeological resources, historic buildings, and cultural landscapes across the nation.” 

Some may argue that climate change has actually helped archeologists. Historic droughts in 2022 revealed sunken Nazi warships in the Danube, dinosaur footprints in the Paluxy riverbed in Texas, and other artifacts. These were often found in rivers, lakes, or reservoirs, instead of coastal areas, and some have since been resubmerged. While archeologists try to make the most of these unpredictable opportunities, these finds cannot compare to what they stand to lose.

As a student who hopes to become an archeologist in the future, I see my career dreams literally sinking at the precise moment when, thanks to technological advances, the field holds so much promise. By the time I enter the workforce, it may be too late to dig in some of my favorite archeological sites. This is particularly sad because archeology has recently made great strides in telling the stories of women and marginalized communities. Whereas history used to focus on the stories of dominant individuals and groups, so many of us are only now learning our histories. 

I wanted to write this article as a way to raise my voice. I am told I am too young to run for office, too young to vote, and too young to do much lobbying. Young people are rarely given the chance to encourage our governments to protect the climate, which is why young people like Greta Thunberg had to resort to school strikes when she was around my age. Similarly, young people are rarely included in discussions about supporting archeology. Both goals are so important, and the current generation of adults has a responsibility to lead the way. Younger generations know that it’s their future at stake, but they need adults’ help to access and raise their voices in adult-led spaces. 

Adults can help by improving climate change education. Young people need to learn more about climate change and its impact on archeology. These topics get little attention in schools, educational resources, or children’s media, but we need to understand what’s at stake and how to reduce our climate footprint to protect historical treasures waiting to be dug up. 

Adults should also increase funding for climate-informed archeological work. “Funding for archaeological research from governmental and philanthropic sources is becoming scarcer,” according to the Digital Archeological Record, just at the time when the field needs to accelerate its work. 

Most importantly however, adults need to reduce their own climate footprint. Protecting the climate today not only safeguards our future, it also allows us to continue learning from our past. 

By Halia Ochieng, age 13, Virginia. Their Climate Conservation Club can be reached at: climateconservationclub.gf@gmail.com. Halia says, “I’ve grown up between Europe, Kenya, and the United States, and I take inspiration from environmental activists like Wangari Maathai and Greta Thunberg. I speak German and English and am currently learning French.”